Doctor Says Snapping of Head Killed Palestinian Held in Israel

By JOEL GREENBERG

Published: May 1, 1995

JERUSALEM, April 30—
A Palestinian who died in Israeli custody last week suffered fatal brain injuries when his head was forcefully jerked as he was violently shaken, a pathologist who examined the prisoner said in an affidavit published today.

The prisoner, Abd al-Samed Hreizat, 30, of Hebron, died last Tuesday, three days after his arrest. The army said he was suspected of being a local leader of the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the militant Islamic group Hamas. Mr. Hreizat's lawyer denies the charges.

Dr. Derrick Pounder, a forensic pathologist from Scotland, took part in the official autopsy on behalf of the prisoner's family. Dr. Pounder said on Friday that the pattern of injury had been caused by "a method of torture well known to be used by the Shin Bet," Israel's domestic security service.

The death is under investigation by the Israeli Justice Ministry, and has already resulted in the suspension of a Shin Bet interrogator. It has revived questions about how far the Government may go in combating acts of terrorism.

Last November, in response to a wave of deadly attacks by radical Muslim groups, a Cabinet committee authorized harsher interrogations of suspected militants by the Shin Bet.

Israeli officials assert that such interrogations are needed to prevent attacks like the suicide bombings that have taken more than 65 lives in the last year.

Accounts by former prisoners and court testimony by Shin Bet agents indicate that Palestinians under interrogation have been violently shaken, shackled in painful positions with foul-smelling sacks on their heads and deprived of sleep.

In one account cited by the American rights group Human Rights Watch/Middle East, a former prisoner said his head "flapped backward and forward and lost all feeling" when he was grabbed by the collar and shaken hard. Other prisoners reported that they had fainted.

Mr. Hreizat, who was 4 feet 6 and weighed about 95 pounds, may have been particularly susceptible to injury from such treatment because of his size. Dr. Pounder said that Mr. Hreizat had been subjected to "forceful jerking movements of the head," and that "the pattern of injuries as a whole suggests that the method of injury was violent shaking."

Environment Minister Yossi Sarid, a member of the Cabinet committee that oversees the Shin Bet, said interrogations of militants posed a quandary.

"On the one hand Shin Bet investigations today are more crucial than ever because there are more of what we call ticking bombs in many places that only a quick investigation can neutralize," he said in a radio interview. "On the other hand, it is completely clear that in the state of Israel torture during interrogation is completely banned, and incidents of death under interrogation are intolerable."